Candidate's Ex-wife Got Court Orders For Her Protection

Lake Mary City Commission Candidate Michael Wierzbowski Denied Hurting The Woman And Vowed To Stay In The Race.

October 4, 1997|By Elaine Backhaus of The Sentinel Staff

SANFORD — The former wife of a Lake Mary City Commission candidate twice was granted injunctions for protection against her husband during their marriage.

Michael J. Wierzbowski, one of three candidates hoping to upset incumbent George Duryea for the Seat 2 post, said Thursday that he never harmed or threatened to harm his former wife, Patricia.

Wierzbowski, 47, said he hopes the information will not harm his chances of being elected on Nov. 4. He said he has no plans to drop out of the race.

''On the surface, if you look at everything, it probably doesn't look too good. I probably wouldn't vote for me,'' Wierzbowski said. ''I know this will look horrible, but I have done nothing wrong and I plan to stay in the race.''

The political newcomer said his former wife fabricated the stories of abuse during their seven-year marriage, which ended in 1995.

Wierzbowski, who has since remarried a woman whose name is also Patricia, said he attended domestic violence classes during his marriage. He said he did those things ''as a favor'' to his wife.

Wierzbowski also said his wife videotaped him outside their home in Geneva in 1994 saying he was crazy and banging his head on a porch. He said he was forced to do those things before his wife would allow him back inside their house.

Circuit Court files in Seminole County show temporary injunctions for protection were ordered against Wierzbowski, accused of repeat violence against his wife in 1992 and 1995.

In 1992, a judge issued an injunction and ordered Wierzbowski to leave home. His wife said her father had suffered a stroke and that Wierzbowski started an argument while she was crying and upset. He pulled her hair and threw her on their bed, she said.

Another temporary injunction was ordered against Wierzbowski on Jan. 9, 1995, again based on claims of domestic violence. The court order was included in the couple's divorce records, which also described other claims of violence.

According to court records, Wierzbowski said he required stitches in 1988 after his wife attacked him with a knife during an argument. Patricia Wierzbowski said in a countersuit for divorce that her husband caused his own injuries when he chased her and her 9-year-old son from a previous marriage with a knife and threatened to harm them. She said she struck Wierzbowski in the face with a sausage.

Wierzbowski said he was treated for injuries at a hospital after his wife cut him with a pair of scissors in 1993, court records show. Patricia Wierzbowski said her husband held the scissors and threatened to stab himself and die on top of her during a heated argument, records show.

Wierzbowski denied that he threatened his wife with a machete or tried to break a sliding-glass door by banging it with a television and his head on Sept. 26, 1994, as she claimed in court records.

In another case, police charged Patricia Wierzbowski with battery in May 1995 for trying to tear an earring from her husband's ear. The case was dropped after the State Attorney's Office decided not to file formal charges against her.

Wierzbowski said that some of the claims his former wife have made ''are true, like the videotape she has of me. Just about everything else is fabricated. I have never harmed her and I don't believe that I ever threatened to kill her, not as far as I can recall.''